Raleigh Run the Ridge 5k Race Report

Well not sure what happened to the heat, but this weekend was REALLY cold, but that didn't stop me from racing this weekend. I ran the Run the Ridge 5K with a friend of mine, Kindra Arthur and it was for a great cause, the Pretty in Pink foundation, which supports cancer patients by paying their hospital bills if they can't afford it with insurance. I love good causes and I think this one ranks right up there. Well I got up early (for a weekend) and drove over to Kindra's house, forgetting my breakfast on the counter, and got there at about 0630, so we could drive up to Raleigh together. Got to meet her pups (which were hyper) and her friend, Wendy, who was on the mend and didn't race. Well we loaded up and got on the road. It didn't take us too long to get up there, but we started to have problems with the GPS and took a few extra turns to get to the race site.

Of course, since I didn't get my breakfast, I had a breakfast burrito and a Slim Jim for my meal, yum! We got there and got out, noting that it was colder here than in Fayetteville, and got our race numbers and chips, I ended up with #13 (not too forbodding or anything!), so we stretched, warmed up and went to the big blue church to worship, and we were ready. One of the locals told us that this course was hilly, beginning with a 1/2 mile up hill stretch and that you were either running up hill or downhill, no flat spots, awesome! Well, that turned out to be true, as I started the race about in 10th or so, and hit the first of many hills, and wow, it too the wind out of a bunch of folks sails. But I powered up the hill and noticed a tiny female ahead of me, so I had my eyes set on her to pick off and she was hanging tough until about the 1 mile mark, where my strength up hill and my body weight downhill overcame her youth, but she was tough to catch and pass. After passing her, I had just two guys ahead of me, so I wanted to keep them in sight and hope to make up some ground on them. But with all the up and down hills, I couldn't close the gap fast enough, even when the guy in second kept looking back for me, I knew he was hurting, but I couldn't quite get there. The best part was the end of the race, with a nice half mile downhill, which was very welcome. I ended up setting a new PR again, with a 20:54 despite all the hills, so I can't wait until I hit some flat roads again, and best yet, got a podium finish (3rd, but they didn't have a podium, sad face). But again, finished 2nd in my age group, so 3rd overall and 2nd in age group, oh well. It was a fun race, and Kindra ended up winning her age group, despite everyone after 6th place took a wrong turn. But the tiny girl that I passed, she was age 12! And the guy behind her was 13! Man, makes you feel old, since their combined ages still don't equal my age! Yikes!

But I talked to her father (who was originnaly from Michigan) and she is getting ready for high school cross country. Me thinks she will do just fine if she runs like that. But the even better part was post-race breakfast at O'Malley's Pub. Some of the best pancakes that I have tasted in a while, yum! And like always, I didn't hurl at the finish line! Yea me! Well guess I have to keep training to keep dropping that time down, but I hate the cold wet weather of spring!